| Thirty-seven-year-old Michael Rosa of tiny Itta Bena, | | | | of Itta Bena, where Rosa remembers meeting Bryant |
| Mississippi lost a research paper he wrote as an | | | | at his watermelon stand on the corner of the highway |
| undergraduate student. "I wish I had been a more | | | | heading west to Cleveland. |
| serious student, then. I wish I had realized what I'd | | | | "He was cordial when I told him about my paper. Then |
| written and the importance," he said. | | | | he started talking in great detail. He was giving his |
| Rosa remembers turning in his paper and then | | | | personal view about what happened that night -- he |
| forgetting about it until this fall, 15 years later, when | | | | really didn't mention J.W. Milam (Till's second killer) or |
| taking a graduate political science class. | | | | anyone else, but I could tell he hadn't changed one bit |
| Again, he has been asked to write a research paper | | | | since that night. |
| and it is due in two weeks. | | | | "He used the N word over and over -- maybe 100 |
| Both assignments? Write about a significant Mississippi | | | | times -- when he was telling me about what happened. |
| black history incident. | | | | He said at first, after his wife told him what Till had |
| If only Rosa could figure out how to put his hands on | | | | done -- that he was just going to whoop the boy. But |
| the paper he wrote in 1994 on Emmett Till, a paper | | | | he said Emmett made some remarks that pushed him |
| that included a personal interview with one of Till's | | | | overboard. So they killed him." |
| murderers, Roy Bryant, the assignment would have | | | | Bryant told Rosa he was very drunk that night and |
| more personal meaning today, he said. | | | | said they killed Till and tied a gin fan around his neck |
| "Back then, we didn't have computers, printers and | | | | while they were still in Drew. "It sounded like Till was |
| copy machines. But I wish I could get the original paper | | | | either dead or unconscious when they did that to him." |
| back. That would certainly help with this assignment," | | | | Talking to Bryant was "...like talking to a stone cold killer. |
| he said. | | | | He showed absolutely no remorse. It was like he was |
| Rosa has a fascinating story to tell, even if he cannot | | | | able to vividly recall what happened that night." |
| recover the most important student paper he has ever | | | | Rosa remembers that Bryant said his wife, Carolyn, |
| written -- probably the most historically significant paper | | | | was with the men. "He said he came home to the |
| he will ever write. | | | | store and she said Till [using a derogatory term] had |
| Rosa was studying black history at Valley State | | | | 'come on to her.' Bryant said she went with him and |
| University, the small, historically black college near his | | | | Milam to the uncle's house [Rev. Moses Wright] to |
| hometown in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in 1994 | | | | kidnap Till and that she identified him, that she pointed |
| when a black history professor issued the first | | | | him out." |
| assignment that is close to the project he is currently | | | | Rosa remembers Bryant explaining they killed Emmett |
| trying to finish. | | | | Till "because he didn't understand where the hell he |
| The first time around, Rosa knew from the start he | | | | was -- that he was in the South," and "because he |
| wanted to write about Till, a 14-year-old Chicago | | | | wasn't scared at all, like he should have been." |
| schoolboy who was murdered while visiting relatives in | | | | Bryant was a bitter man who was angry at the white |
| the Delta in 1955. The event is said to have sparked | | | | community for refusing to do business at his |
| the modern civil rights movement and it is a piece of | | | | watermelon stand, Rosa said. "Bryant claimed that |
| history that has picked up interest in the past few | | | | Milam 'got all the money' from the magazine interview. |
| years as the FBI investigated this civil rights cold case. | | | | He died two weeks after we talked." |
| This fall, Till's original casket was moved to the | | | | A racist grandfather can easily poison his family's |
| Smithsonian museum for protection and eventual | | | | beliefs for generations to come. But the circle was |
| display, after the Chicago cemetery where his body is | | | | broken for Rosa, he says, because his grandmother |
| buried was subjected to grave robberies. Till's grave | | | | made the difference. Rosa's mother worked long |
| was unharmed but his original casket was found | | | | hours and his maternal grandmother, "a kind soul," took |
| abandoned in an old shed. | | | | care of him. |
| Further, the race for historical research is on in | | | | The family was poor and lived at the edge of the |
| Mississippi as the state prepares to move into the | | | | black side of town where Rosa "saw racism while I |
| future, with a new pledge that its school children learn | | | | was growing up on a daily basis." |
| the truth about their state's civil rights past. The | | | | Other white kids went to the town's all-white private |
| classroom program is the outgrowth of a law passed | | | | academy. But Rosa lived 100 feet from the public |
| in 2006 by the Legislature and statewide | | | | school and decided to go there -- from elementary |
| implementation is planned for the 2010-2011 school | | | | through high school. |
| year. | | | | "Some of the white families got together and offered |
| Rosa knew about Till because the murder was so | | | | to pay for my tuition to the white school. They didn't |
| shocking it made international news in 1955, just one | | | | want to see me go to the public school with black kids. |
| year after U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Brown v. the | | | | I was the only white student." |
| Topeka Board of Education that declared the end to | | | | A neighbor woman once offered to pay for his |
| segregated schools. Till's murder took place near | | | | schooling through college, if he would change to the |
| Rosa's home town. | | | | private academy. "I told her 'no' and she said, '...well, at |
| Till, visiting relatives in the Delta, allegedly whistled at a | | | | least don't associate with any of them.'" |
| white woman, Carolyn Bryant, who with her husband | | | | Rosa knew, as a young child, he did not want to "be |
| ran a small grocery story in Money, a nearby cotton | | | | this way." |
| hamlet even smaller than Itta Bena. | | | | Recently, as a mentor at the public school, Rosa was |
| Rosa was working on his first school assignment in | | | | asked by the administrator if he had any ideas for |
| 1994 when his cousin, Pete Walker, asked him about | | | | how to reach out to white children and get them to |
| his paper. As it turned out, Rosa's grandfather, | | | | come to the public school. |
| "probably a Klansman," had bonded out Till's murderers | | | | "It's tough. When I was growing up, one side of town |
| from jail in nearby Greenwood. | | | | was all white. Now there are only three white families |
| "My grandfather, Landy Walker, lived in the same small | | | | left. Everyone else has moved out into the country |
| town of Phillips near Money. It was a small community | | | | and they home school or send their kids to the Pillow |
| and everyone helped each other, so that's probably | | | | Academy over in Greenwood." |
| why my grandfather did this," Rosa said. | | | | Meanwhile, Rosa said he plans to sit quietly and try to |
| The cousin told Rosa he could help him with his | | | | think back and remember as much as he can about |
| research paper by providing a first-hand opportunity to | | | | the interview he had with Roy Bryant so many years |
| meet Roy Bryant, who with J.W. Milam killed the young | | | | ago. |
| visitor. They were never convicted but later confessed | | | | "I really do remember most of what he said, very |
| their guilt to a national magazine reporter. | | | | vividly. It is important history and I want to be able to |
| The two traveled to Ruleville, about 30 miles northwest | | | | pass it on to others. |
